Pizza East Shoreditch

Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars

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(52)

3 out of 5 stars

Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars

The popularity of Pizza East, one of the first bastions of Shoreditch gentrification, hasn’t waned. This Soho House operation still packs out the landmark Tea Building, with hipsters and City boys arriving to eat well past 9pm during the week.

The huge warehouse space features sharing benches, industrial decor and more bare brick and concrete than your average multistorey car park. It’s busy, noisy and dark: a formula some people justifiably love to hate. The regularly changing menu, however, remains inventive and original. Pea and pecorino croquettes were commendably light and fresh, while calamares with caper aïoli proved a cut above the norm.

Pizzas cost from a reasonable £8 to £14, with toppings frequently rejigged. Courgette, olives, robiola cheese and thyme was excellent, but a promising combination of pork belly and mushroom fell short of expectations; greasy chunks of crackling proved the wrong match for the floury crust and tomato base. The only other gripe is that staff insist on serving rather nice wine in chunky tumblers. Still, booze is for glugging not savouring here. Service veers from affable to slightly snooty, but you can’t fault nice touches like American-style takeaway boxes for your leftovers.

I am not sure why this place is so famous,
I can’t quite understand the hype . It
is way too difficult to book a table and to be honest, it's not even close to the best pizza I have
had in London.

The venue and atmosphere are actually very
nice. The restaurant has an industrial and modern feel to it as it is set
inside some sort of old factory in Shoreditch and yet manages to feel cosy and
welcoming . Service was also attentive.

However, aside from the horrible booking
system, our main disappointment was the food. The menu is very basic and limited and food
was really average and fairly overpriced. A lot actually! When you see 15£ for
a pizza you expect something either special or big. Well, neither of those
happened. The highlight of our dinner was probably the chicken, guacamole, soft
egg and parmesan salad; it wasgood but
nothing I would not be able to do myself at home.

This place is so uptight about reservations. The wait is ridiculous if you don't make a reservation. Otherwise, their pizza is fairly average, not as good as many of the others around Shoreditch or London. The lighting is too dark for a pizza place, and none of the toppings offered are interesting or original. The service is mediocre and kinda slow, considering they should want a super fast turn over on the tables. The dessert menu kind of makes up for it, or at least the really yummy sorbet does. And I like the touch of a cloakroom for jackets.

Decided to try Pizza East on a Saturday for lunch. We picked from their brunch menu and also had a pizza. Our choices from the brunch menu of corn fritters with avocado and duck egg, and the smoked salmon with avocado were both good and reasonably priced. I was also surprised the coffee was particularly decent as well! However the pizza was woeful. We had the Margherita and the base was dry and cardboard-like, the tomato sauce was far too sour/intense in flavour and there was barely any cheese which did not resemble buffalo mozzarella like the menu described. It’s a cool venue, I’m sure it goes off on a weekend night in Shoreditch but for a place that is advertised as a pizza restaurant, it was disappointing.

I was quite disappointed in my last visit at Pizza East. Don't get me wrong, their pizzas are still very good. But it doesn't justify the wait for it. We came there on Friday night at 10:30pm and we were told to wait 45 minutes to get a table. I had a quick look at the back of the restaurant where we could see lots of empty tables and eventually ended up booking for it on a reservation app who had a slot at 11pm, nowhere near what we had been told by the waiters. If we hadn't done that, we would have waited about 40 min as I received a text to get my table at that time. Service is far from being perfect and pizzas are quite expensive.

Huge disappointment! I am a big pizza lover and together with another friend with my same passion we tend to go every month to try a new pizza place. This month we decided to try Pizza East after so many people spoke us very well about it.

The restaurant is beautiful, nice lightning and good vibe. We sat at the counter just in front of the oven.

The first shock is the menu, the cheaper pizza is the Margherita and costs £10, first time I see this price in London. Then the Spritz (typical Italian drink from Veneto) costs £9.95, I know we are not in Italy but still this is so much more than everywhere else. We decide to go for a Margherita and a beer.

The pizza is not as good as it looks, the dough is decent but the tomato sauce is too sour and the mozzarella it's not buffalo as the menu says. Try Da Michele pizza after this one and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

The service is very quick but also annoying, three different waiter asked us if we wanted something else when I had my beer still full.

The place is totally overrated and if you want to try don't sit at the counter, the chef screams at the other cooks and not in a nice way.

I actually ended up at Pizza East for the first time for the Hogwhats Harry Potter quiz, so had a slightly different experience!

Quizzers were sat in their basement area, known as Concrete Space – home to many other events. We were offered a pizza and cocktail menu of Pizza East Classics that were named after Harry Potter characters (of course.) I went for the Spicy sausage, broccoli and cream pizza and was a bit unsure of what to expect! I was pleasantly surprised – the base was cooked really well, and there was a generous amount of flavoursome topping. I wish I could say the same thing for the cocktails but the peach and vanilla (Golden Snitch) cocktail I ordered was unavailable as they'd somehow 'run out of peach schnapps' at the start of the evening, and the prosecco & aperol alternative was quite strong without having much flavour.

However, it is a pizza restaurant and I'd happily go back and try another one of their inventive toppings in their main space again.

Having heard great things about Pizza East, we decided to drop in one Friday evening. The large warehouse style restaurant has been split up in such a way that provides ambience and cosiness, despite its size. After a stint in the bar area were lucky enough to get a seat at the bar by the kitchen where you can look on a the chef's in action. We ordered two pizzas and the staff were really friendly and accommodating to change the base on one of our choices from cream to tomato. The pizza is honestly some of the best I have eaten, generous and tasty toppings (highly recommend the truffle one) and the most delicious crispy but moist base. Great atmosphere, friendly staff, highly recommended.

Mondays don't get any better than those spent in Pizza East noshing on seasonal, stone-baked half-price pizza. Wash it all down with a zingy Italian aperitif or even a carafe of their house rosé on tap whilst you delight in its half-pricedness and you have yourself a dream! The secret? You'll need to wink enough at a waiter to be offered the coveted keyring that grants you a 50% bill at the beginning of the week but it's totally worth the endeavour, I've been frequenting this place since my student days and don't intend to stop any time soon.

The menu is short and seasonal, focussed on the finest Italian ingredients. Go hungry and go with a group; order a batch of their starters to share and then indulge on whichever pizza you like - you can't go wrong! Be sure to save just a little bit of yourself to try a bite of the famed salted caramel chocolate tart. It's one of the only dishes that never has and I imagine never will leave the menu, there would be riots!

Yessssss delicious pizza! And from the mouth of a New Yorker, this means something. Typical NY, thin-crust pizza with a hint of burned crust. Loads of toppings and flavours. I got the aubergine and pesto pizza with squash added a top. Not one topping was skimped on. The rich roasted aubergine and thin-sliced squash, together with the tomato sauce, are just fabulous. I ate the whole pizza! The price gives me sideye- at £12 a medium-sized pie, it's not cheap- but it's so damn good I would return. It wasn't overly busy when we stopped by this Sunday afternoon.

Just dinking a star because my husband had the burrata antipasti and the cheese is pretty bland. Have had far better burrata at Obica and in NY. Also the glass of Pinot Grigio (decent enough) is pretty pricey at £8/glass.

A cold Monday is made a thousand times better with a catchup with friends at Pizza East. The Shoreditch restaurant is huge and its a really cool building with is low hanging lights and brick walls. When we arrived it was packed creating a lovely and lively atmosphere. With the help of their large sharing tables it was fairly easy to get a seat - even making some pizza loving friends too! If you do have a bit of a wait, fear not, the bar is just as lovely serving great cocktails (I'd highly recommend the expresso martini).

The food really is incredible, some of the best pizza in the city but if you're not in the mood for a pizza, their salads and pasta is fab too and you've got to try the garlic bread!

With half prize on Mondays for those with a keyring, it really is a lovely way to start the week.

Wanting to hide from the chilly air and catch up with an old friend a few days before Christmas, I stepped into Pizza East and received a very warm welcome, with lively chatter, hints of pesto, pecorino and basil, the smell of freshly baked dough in the air.

For a very popular pizza place in East London, it is surprisingly easy to get a table or at least a seat at the bar even without booking. And if you want to see the pizza masters topping a savoury curst with truffle oil and scamorza or the bartender blending syrup and bourbon into a smooth Old Fashioned, then the bar will guarantee you the best seat in the house.

The service is very efficient and the staff extremely friend. The rich Italian red wine (Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) recommended by an Italian waiter was delicious and went perfectly with a chunky piece of soft and creamy burrata, paired with figs and drizzled with honey.

It’s hard to recommend one particular pizza for the main course. It’s safe to say that you can’t really go wrong, no matter what you choose. If you want something off the beaten track and don’t normally shy away from strong flavours, I’d recommend the black truffle, taleggio, mozarella pizza.

Having walked past this place a million times I was excited to finally go visit the famous Pizza East, however it disappointedly didn’t live up to the hype for me. I loved the place itself- bare brick, atmospheric low lighting, cool giant arty light shade things and display cases of international cheeses, all very Shoreditch trendy warehouse chic, but the pizza… Not so much.

We had just under an hour wait for a table, but we expected this late on a Friday night. They send you a text when your table is ready, but don’t go too far as they only give you a five minute window to claim it, the guy next to us wanted to go to Islington (!), so we happily hung around the bar sampling cocktails.

We had great negroni and caipiroska cocktails and a starter of gnocchi which was delicious, but the pizza wasn’t as good considering its popularity. The smoked lonza pizza was nice but a bit plain tasting in all honesty. In comparison the black truffle pizza was so incredibly strong- we couldn’t decide if the intense mixture of garlic, heavy cream, truffles and pungent cheese was amazing or revolting, plus the appearance of the truffles was a bit gross, kind of like dollops of pureed poop, sorry for that mental image.

All in all I’d go again as I liked the space a lot, the staff were all really friendly, the retro soundtrack was amazing, and I’d be keen to try the other toppings on offer, but from that experience alone- I’ve had better.

Like most places in London now expect a wait for a table. This place is super popular but luckily for good reason. They have a little bar area where you can wait for a table - 20 mins is the longest I've had to wait.

I've noticed that the menu changed slightly on the 2 occasions I visited. The pizzas are excellent though - really tasty and nice flavour combinations that feel more authentically Italian than the standard toppings most places offer. The sausage and broccoli is especially good.

The anitpasta selection is also pretty expansive and I'm looking forward to sampling some of the meats on my next visit.

A lovely night out with lots of atmosphere and great food - oh and I mustn't forget to mention the cocktails. Cocktails and Pizza - you can't go wrong!

I hadn't really heard many reviews on this place and wasn't planning on going here however my bf had been before and said the pizza was really good and we couldn't decide anywhere else to go!

The menu actually looks amazing and they have lots of starters and nibbles which look really good. We both just went for a pizza and myyyy was I impressed. I went for nduja and ricotta and it was full of flavour and loved the baseWill definitely be back!

Very Cool Pizzeria that is at the heart of Shoreditch. Delicious food and good service. The restaurant is very atmospheric and airy. After work it fills out quickly and is rammed with cool types getting their first drinks in or having that post work coffee. Desserts are delicious as well and if you have a large party there is plenty of space as the place is massive.

Despite being a large restaurant, Pizza East can get very busy and I definitely recommend making a reservation. The portions are generous and the prices are reasonable. The macaroni and cheese is incredible and the broccoli with chill and almonds was also delicious! The service was very attentive and my only complaint would be that music was very loud and it was quite hard to have a conversation.

I've been to Pizza East a multitude of times and have had mixed experiences, but mainly good. My main tips are as such - the mac and cheese is amazing and worth getting in place of/as well as a pizza. The starters are mainly rubbish. The staff are friendly and you can usually book a table. The pizzas are good, sometimes think the flavours are a bit overly fussy. What's wrong with a quattro fromaggio? Other than that it's a lovely space and I always find it has quite a nice vibe in the evenings.

Again let down by a certain Indian Restaurant and their 'no reservations' policy (I swear-- 8pm on a Tuesday people... come on) we decided on Pizza East, a place I have passed numerous time but have never frequented.

First off-- the queuing system was so civilised. They take your mobile number and SMS you when your table is ready, so you could pop over to the BoxPark if you chose or saddled up to the bar for some pre-dinner drinks. You can even see where you are on the queue and the estimated wait time. Brill.

We started off with the olives (which come with almonds so watch out if you have an allergy!) which were plump ad delicious .I had the spicy sausage and tender stem broccoli pizza while my friend had the coppa (cured meat-- think prosciutto), rocket, & parmesan pizza.

I highly enjoy the dough. The crust was nice and chewy without feeling overly dense. I definitely recommend the chili sauce-- had I had it pre pizza it probably would have gone on the olives.

The entire thing came to about £20/person (includes a beer, split starter, and a pizza)... so again not too bad for the area.

Thanks to this indian place-- I have been able to have two delicious and unexpected meals! :)

Great chilled out restaurant and excellent food! Generous portions, be careful not to order too many sides before your pizza. A friend and I shared the Mac n Cheese, Meatballs and garlic bread and were too full to eat our Pizza! Oops! ...Now I need to go back again to try the pizzas as they look delicious!

The restaurant is really cool inside. We shared mac and cheese, veal meatball pizza and some brunch items, which were all really tasty. Bloody mary's were great and service was fast and friendly. Will go back for sure!

Great venue and good value food. It's always busy here but my group of friends and I managed to get seated at a communal table without a reservation. The food is good, though there is still some room for improvement. My friends were impressed with their pizzas. I on the other hand ordered the veal ossobuco with rainbow chard, which was just OK. The meat was lovely and tender, but it was served in a really salty and watery sauce (kind of like soy sauce), and the rainbow chard was also soaked to the point of having little texture.
It might have had something to do with the fact my order fell through the cracks somehow, and so the chefs were rushed to get my meal prepared when all of my friends already had their pizzas. What has made me give Pizza East 4 stars is that I have rarely seen such good service provided by the manager of non-posh restaurant.
When my friend notified the waitress of a her onion allergy, the manager (Jose) immediately came over to discuss her requirements in detail and took care to ensure it was correctly documented for the chefs. Moreover, when my meal failed to arrive along with my friends', Jose was quick to address the issue, apologise and offer my meal on the house (all without me having to complain first). When my friend's onion free pizza arrived, and my ossobuco finally arrived, Jose was over again both times to ensure we were happy with our meals. And finally, when it came to pay for our bill, he was over again, double checking that I hadn't been incorrectly charged for my ossobuco.
I am really impressed with Jose's conscientiousness; the genuine care and concern he has for his customers (and therefore passion for his job) is a great example of what more people in the service industry should be like.

We booked for over 20 people and we were told that we would have to be split over two tables, which we accepted.
BUT what we didn't know is that these tables would be at opposite ends of the restaurant!
The food was a "Christmas Special", the pizzas were nice
BUT the starters were also a bit scarce, we had to share the food being served so we didn't have a full pizza each, the drinks kept being forgotten and we were served 8 desserts to share between 18!!!
And finally, we were told that we had to leave the table by 9:30!
We were charged £30 per person for the pleasure!
When I spoke to the manager about the lack of food, I was basically told to f/off and that it wasn't his problem.
Ludicrous amount of money for very little food and appalling attitude from the management team!

Had a table booked for 8.30 for 4, but last minute there was an addition to the party. Knowing the restaurant’s reputation, we arrived at 8, and were told under no circumstances could they fit another person on our table – it would “affect the comfort of the other customers”. We were told we would have to wait around an hour for a table for 5. At 9.45 we were finally seated, without even a token “sorry about the wait” and when we pointed out how long it had been, the reaction was akin to “you are lucky we are letting you eat ”. The front of house staff are rude and pretentious, destroying any hope of a laid back, NY vibe. The pizza is good, but perhaps the girls in reception should be reminded that at the end of the day, they are working in a pizza joint, and that treating customers with such contempt will only lead to the place going downhill.

Had a family lunch here today, mainly to try another of Time Out's 100 best dishes in London (Chocolate salted caramel tart), and not one of us could fault the food or drink. First up, the olives shone like big fat juicy emeralds, and tasted every bit as good as they looked. The pizzas were decadent, thoughtfully assembled, light, crispy without being crusty, and utterly delicious; great wine list, so the wine buff told me; and the desserts were as heavenly as promised. Five and a half very happy (and full) customers. Looking forward to going back to taste the non pizzas. Minor gripes were service could have been just a little better, and would be nice to see more non lagers on the beer list.

If you want to go as a group to celebrate or have a lovely evening - don't go there! I attended my friends surprise birthday party. Table was booked for 8 people, but 10 of us arrived. After having ordered full table of drinks, we were informed by the waiter that our table is not getting served because it's more than 8 people at the table, suggesting two people should either sit separately or leave which is the biggest absurd I have ever heard. We were approach by 3 different people insisting we should pay for our drinks and leave which left us feeling rather unwelcomed! It had already ruined the great deal of the night as two people had to leave the table and go somewhere else. After all this drama, half way through the meal we were then told we have to leave because the table is booked for hour and a half, wonder who can have a nice dinner for 8 people in such a short time?? Of course, nobody has informed us of that either. Having worked in few restaurants myself, I have never witnessed anything like that. Seriously, don't go there! Will ruin your night!

Maybe I went on the good a day, but I was really impressed with the food, i did have m doubts at first... however we tried the pizza and mac and cheese and both was perfect. Seriously i loved the pizza with spicy sausage and tenderstem. We also noticed the prim rib looked also looked very tempting, so will be trying that next time we go. The place was buzzing and if they continue to serve food like i tried yesterday. This would surely be one of my favourite places to eat.

Clearly the who wrote the article was more interested in the area than in the food for which probably he/she has not real taste or clue.
Terrible is to be nice, expensive pizzas which you can have on better place for 30/40% less. Laud if you want a conversation please bring with you a megaphone. Pretentious place, that aim to be trendy and sophisticated so they can charge you more and make you wait 45 minutes top for a place to seat (this on a Monday night) and you should also be pleased of that. Gosh Napoletanian friends please hurry, here they have no clue what a pizza is, they are in desperate need of help.

Ridiculously expensive for mediocre food. We were seated in the middle of the room and the seats were very uncomfortable. Other than that, it was very noisy, little choice in food, no gluten free and very bland salads. When the bill came finally we were horrified, yet were unable to get a discount from anyone, despite the fact that one of our party had not been eating, three were not drinking and one was gluten intolerant. The only thing I could possibly compliment was our particular waiter, who was attentive and friendly. Very disappointing end to our night.

The premises are pretty cool, with the usual grittiness of shoreditch and an industrial feel to it. the sevice was ok, and the food was good enough but overpriced in my opinion. I would recommend it to give it a go but not sure I would go back, you can find better value for money somewhere else.

Went there last weekend for a friends birthday, seating was alright, and we had a few appetizers and 3 pizzas with wine, nothing more then your average fancy dinner. When we got the bill they overcharged us by £600 which im sorry is just not acceptable for a restaurant. They claimed there was a problem with there system and we were forced to pay it. Needless to say £120 per person for 2 slices of bread and cheese with a glass of wine just doesnt do it for me. The atmosphere however is probably the best thing about it.

Just make sure you've got a crystal ball and can get your table numbers exact. Booked online several weeks in advance for my birthday and when my party number went up by one, was told they couldn't accommodate this. Was told that they were already fitting 8 on a table that could fit 6 comfortably which wasn't terribly reassuring. Had to move my birthday dinner at short notice so big thumbs down from the birthday girl and her guests!

I only had the option for 1 star, but actually I would give it 0.5!
We went last night for a friend’s birthday. He had tried to book a table for 18 over the phone, but the lady he spoke to, who was apparently very rude and unhelpful, said that the chef ‘could not cope with a table of 18’! How unprofessional is that?!
We were told we could sit at 2 tables, although I’m not sure what difference it actually makes if we are all together or not.
We had a table booked for 8pm but we weren’t seated until after 9pm, at 2 tables at opposite ends of the restaurant, even though there were empty tables together (apparently they were booked, it seems by them running an hour late, it meant we lost our seating!).
During our meal the waiter didn’t come over once to see if we wanted more drinks or anything, and in fact when we wanted anything we had to go off and find it!
We asked repeatedly for condiments that didn’t actually arrive until we had pretty much finished. Coffee after dinner took 25 minutes to arrive, and only after we had asked for it twice.
The food was substandard- my pizza was about 70% crust, and had 4 measley dribbles of cheese on it- they must be making a fortune by selling warm bread at £12 a pop!
It also tasted so strongly of garlic that I couldn’t taste anything else. I love garlic, but that doesn’t mean I want to taste it for several days afterwards.
We complained so much that they didn’t charge us for our drinks, but I’ve worked in enough restaurants to know that if people are that unsatisfied, they shouldn’t charge us anything at all.
They even had the audacity to charge us service charge, then come back to our table to tell us there was 25p missing off our bill!
I think it’s safe to say that none of us will be going back, and I will also be telling everyone I know not to go. You get better food and service at Pizza Express!
This place is truly awful, I have never been to such a bad restaurant.

Went to Pizza East last night on a recommendation from a Friend. Worst Pizza i have ever had. I had the Meat ball pizza. Meat balls were soggy and under cooked. Pizza base was soggy. Great atmosphere. But would have had a better pizza at a high street chain. The only saving grace was the desert which was nice. Doubly disappointed when the bill came. Way over priced. I recommend Pizza Express. Unfortunately i cannot give it 0 stars.

First off - **Genuinely the best pizza i have ever had**, I had the San Danielle.
HOWEVER...
...There were lots of stupid things that spoiled Pizza East, for example - I ordered a glass of wine which came in a tumbler and when I asked the waiter if he had a wine glass he said that the tumbler was a wine glass. I then addressed the fact that it was a tumbler and his words were "that's how they serve wine in Italy".
Now... I've been to Italy and I can't say I was ever served wine in a tumbler but I didn't dig in to this I just left it be.
We waited half an hour for our table, fine but!.. When our table was ready we found out that we'd actually be dining at the bar because there were not any tables available... It would've been nice to be told this before waiting! Also, the bar area we waited at before being seated 'at another bar' was not acceptable - no clear way of ordering a beverage of any sort, it almost looks like you are supposed to serve yourself!
Ridiculously sick pizza I had in there though!.. It's OK for me to say sick because I'm 22 and from Essex (I got the Central Line to Lpool St and walked)
I would defo rate Pizza East a 5 if this was based on food alone, also had olives and almonds to start - much better than the ones in Selfridges!
Mr Bloggs

Potentially the worst pizza I ever had. Love the decor, venue, quirkiness of the place but OMG the pizzas were rubbish- the base was good and well cooked, sadly all of the toppings were dripping with oil, even the vegs added on the pizza had been "fried"- the result product was swimming in oil. Same with the side salad, that included some bread (why!) that has been plunged in olive oil. Very expensive for a meal I barely touched

Dont bother - the worst restaurant in the world! the excuse they had for a pasta dish wasnt worth serving to the pigs let a lone paying (£15) customer. VILE! this is the second time i was painfully disappointed in Pizza East, so shame on me. Overpriced and overhyped - NO SUBSTANCE!!!